Flag

Created by Pierre De Coubertin in 1914.
The Olympic flag ... has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red ... This design is symbolic ; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time.
— Pierre De Coubertin (1931)[10]
[edit]Specific flags
There are specific Olympic flags that are displayed by cities that will be hosting the next Olympic games. During each Olympic closing ceremony in what is traditionally known as the Antwerp Ceremony,[11] the flag is passed from the mayor of one host city to the next host, where it will then be taken to the new host and displayed at city hall. These flags should not be confused with the larger Olympic flags designed and created specifically for each games, which are flown over the host stadium and then retired. Because there is no specific flag for this purpose, the flags flown over the stadiums generally have subtle differences, including minor color variations, and, more noticeably, the presence (or lack) of white outlines around each ring.
[edit]Antwerp flag
The first Olympic flag was presented to the IOC at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of the Games, the flag could not be found and a new Olympic flag had to be made for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Despite it being a replacement, the IOC officially still calls this the "Antwerp Flag" instead of the "Paris Flag"[12] It was passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics until the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway when a separate Olympic flag was created to be used only at the Winter Olympics (see below). The 1924 flag then continued to be used at the Summer Olympics until the Games of Seoul 1988 when it was retired.
In 19

7, at a banquet hosted by the US Olympic Committee, a reporter was interviewing Hal Haig Prieste who had won a bronze medal in platform diving as a member of the 1920 US Olympic team. The reporter mentioned that the IOC had not been able to find out what had happened to the original Olympic flag. "I can help you with that," Prieste said, "It's in my suitcase." At the end of the Antwerp Olympics, spurred on by team-mate Duke Kahanamoku, he climbed a flagpole and stole the Olympic flag. For 77 years the flag was stored away in the bottom of his suitcase. The flag was returned to the IOC by Prieste, by then 103 years old, in a special ceremony held at the 2000 Games in Sydney.[13] The original Antwerp Flag is now on display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a plaque thanking him for donating it.[2]
[edit]Oslo flag
The Oslo flag was presented to the IOC by the mayor of Oslo, Norway during the 1952 Winter Olympics. Since then, it has been passed to the next organizing city for the Winter Olympics. Currently, the actual Oslo flag is kept preserved in a special box, and a replica has been used during recent closing ceremonies instead.[14]
[edit]Seoul flag
Flag of South Korea alongside an Olympic Flag in Olympic Park, Seoul
As a successor to the Antwerp Flag,[15] the Seoul flag was presented to the IOC at the 1988 Summer Olympics by the city of Seoul, South Korea, and has since then been passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics.
[edit]Singapore flag
For the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, an Olympic flag was created for the junior version of the Games.[16][17] The flag is similar in most ways to the Olympic flag, but has the words "Singapore 2010" on it and was first presented to Singapore by IOC President Jacques Rogge.[16][17] It was handed over to the next organising committee, Nanjing 2014, during the closing ceremony on 26 August 2010.